Meet Edwina Bolger

My aim in life has always to be healthy and happy. I am very fortunate to be able to say – I am.

Pilates has been instrumental in allowing me to achieve this. I have been able to bring the core principles integral to the Pilates method into my daily life and yes even though patience isn’t one of the six, I’ve been able to work on that one to! As I say to my clients there are so many add on bonuses to Pilates, the learning journey never ends. And perhaps this is another aspect of Pilates that I have found so absorbing and sits so well with me – my passion to continually learn and challenge myself.

So even this little filming session on recovery exercises was indeed another opportunity to throw ideas around with colleagues. I came in with my favourite set of exercises we played around with them, made a few modifications and came up with a great flowing set that offers all I need at the end of the session.

It’s a funny thing, as an instructor hour after hour we celebrate in our clients walking out the door feeling energised, lighter on their feet, a little taller and more connected to their body. But hey after teaching for 4 hours how come I don’t always feel like that? To be honest I often feel a little hunched, spine compressed and not that light on my feet at all! Ahhh recovery, I do recall they kept on about that in our training, but so easy to skip as we often have to race out of the studio and get on with the day, make another appointment, get to school pick up……….. But they we right, it is so important in sustaining a healthy and happy career as an instructor.

So here are my go to recovery exercises on the Cadi:

Breathing!! – To find my centre, focus and connect.

SB Roll Back – really lets me stretch out the spine and gets some length back into my body, then adding some arm presses to really open up across the front of the chest as well as providing some arm work.

SB Back extension – I always feel I need to open up across the front and work those upper back extensors

Back extension – this exercise lets me work the whole back and hamstrings too!

Hanging Back – I love this! Just hanging feels great, pressing up to open up the hips, going back into extension and then adding the pull ups for some more arm and shoulder work.

And I’m done. Now I get to walk out the door feeling energised, lighter on my feet, a little taller and more connected to my body, but most of all, feeling ready and looking forward to returning to the studio for another teaching day.